Nick Saban and Leadership

Nick Saban authored How Good Do You Want to Be, sharing his ideas on leadership. Saban's not perfect, but he's meticulous, prepared, disciplined to the nth degree, and consistent. You know who he is...authentic, respectable, if not always likable. 

We earn leadership every day, to deserve being called 'Coach'. A title doesn't make us a leader. If we are lazy, disrespectful, or dismissive, we're posers not leaders. Leaders listen, learn, and teach. They seek to understand not judge. 

He emphasizes (like all great coaches) practice preparation, organization to the minute, and detailed notes. 

In the "Leadership" chapter, Saban presents the following subheading "lessons". We can insert our own examples.

1. Great leaders stand up when adversity arises. I think of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the Bowdoin professor whose Gettysburg counterattack held the southern front against the Alabama 15th regiment. How did he transform teaching to combat? "I can learn." 

2. Great leaders allow the team to take ownership of the rules. The 2008 Celtics developed fourteen guiding principles en route to an NBA championship. Kevin Eastman swore it to secrecy. No player is ever bigger than the team. 

3. Great leaders embrace future leaders. Coach Wooden remarked that he could better judge his work by seeing what type of men his players became. 

4. Great leaders lead the orchestra but let them play. The military expresses this as "commander's intent", so that front line followers know what intermediate and end-states should resemble. 

5. Great leaders pick their battles. General Sherman's march to the sea avoided great battles while devastating infrastructure during the Civil War. Saban emphasizes the importance of media relations. He says, "there's a fine line between accountability and micro-managing." 

6. Great leaders do not rush to make changes because of failure. Bill Walsh's first season with the 49ers led to a 2-14 record and the second was 6-10. San Francisco won a Super Bowl in his third season. It took time for his organization and "Standards of Excellence" to take hold.

7. Great leaders hire good people. "Hire tough." We see many hiring principles in practice, including qualification, experience, 'gut', politics, and nepotism. Saban warns against hiring 'Yes' men. 

8. Great leaders make tough decisions. Tom Brady replaced an injured Drew Bledsoe during the 2001 season. Bill Belichick had the foresight and fortitude to ride Brady's performance to the Super Bowl. Saban references Lou Kasischke, a climber who stopped four hundred feet of the Everest summit in 1996. He believed the conditions didn't justify the risk. Four of the six who continued perished. Remind your players, "the summit is not the only place on the mountain."

9. Great leaders accept responsibility. Mike Smith, who coached the Falcons to a Super Bowl berth, acknowledged that he owned the inability to maintain the team's performance going forward. Smith says, “If you are complaining, you are not leading. If you are leading, you are not complaining.”

10.Great leaders show compassion for those around them. The Celtics' postseason has been uneven. Coach Brad Stevens has consistently supported a grieving Isaiah Thomas during the playoffs. 

11.Great leaders never force leadership. Real leaders model leadership. Arlene Blum led the all-woman ascent on Annapurna, but didn't insist on summiting herself. Ego is not the answer. 

12.Great leaders must insist on excellence. Saban relies on "The Process" as his standard at Alabama. Urban Meyer has a similar approach at Ohio State. Don Meyer used to say, "what is unacceptable in defeat is unacceptable in victory." 

13.Great leaders are not always popular. Admiral Rickover, father of the nuclear Navy, was considered an impossible person. His demands, preferences, and stress interviews were legendary. 


How often we see the "say-do" crowd...every day? 

14.Great leaders don't have all the answers, but they find them. Leaders find solutions, not just problems. Thomas Edison's 999 attempts led to his successful lightbulb. Gregg Popovich says you have to "pound the rock" a hundred times until it breaks. At the Naval Academy, plebes are taught five critical answers, "Yes, sir...no, sir, aye aye, sir...right away, sir...and I don't know but I'll find out, sir."